Car Logo Quiz
Several famous car badges are really old coats of arms and star maps.
A car logo quiz with answers about the meaning of the badges, told in words rather than pictures. Each question asks where a famous emblem came from, and a few popular explanations turn out to be wrong.
Did you know?
- The origin of Chevrolet's 'bowtie' badge is still argued over. The company's co-founder said he copied the shape from the wallpaper of a hotel room in Paris. His family told different stories, including that he sketched it at the dinner table or saw it in a newspaper advertisement.
- The slanted H of the Hyundai badge is more than an initial. According to the company it also shows two figures, a customer and a representative of the firm, leaning towards each other and shaking hands inside an oval that stands for the world.
- The horse at the centre of the Porsche crest is linked to the company's home city. Stuttgart grew up around a horse-breeding farm founded in the tenth century, and its name comes from an old German word for a stud farm.
What car badges are trying to say
The first cars carried little more than the maker's name on a brass plate. As the number of manufacturers grew in the early twentieth century, companies needed a sign that could be recognised at a glance, even from a moving vehicle. The badge was fixed to the radiator at the front, the most visible part of the car, and quickly became a matter of pride. Some early badges were made of enamel by jewellers.
Borrowed from heraldry
Many emblems were taken from much older sources. Porsche's crest combines the arms of the city of Stuttgart with those of the surrounding region. Alfa Romeo's badge shows two symbols of Milan: a red cross and a crowned serpent. Others point to the founders' homes or trades, and a few are simply the founder's signature turned into a design. The three diamonds of Mitsubishi join two family crests, and the name itself means 'three diamonds'.
Mascots on the bonnet
For decades luxury cars also carried a small sculpture on the front. The most famous, a figure leaning into the wind with her robes streaming behind her, has decorated one British marque since 1911. Such ornaments became rarer from the 1970s as safety rules sought to protect pedestrians; modern versions fold away into the bodywork in a fraction of a second if they are struck. Collectors still pay high prices for early examples.
Simpler for the screen
In recent years many car makers have redrawn their badges. Shiny three-dimensional emblems with chrome edges have given way to flat designs in one or two colours. The reason is practical: a logo now has to work on a phone screen, in an app and on an illuminated panel on an electric car, as well as on the metal of the car itself. Several badges now light up at night.